The advent of digital technology has triggered the desire of many businesses for paperless office processes, and it is becoming possible year after year. In fact, lots of companies are already reducing their use of paper in order to reduce printing costs.
We’re now in the year 2020. The present digital technology is at its best so far. We have computers, portable office and communication devices, and software that can certainly help companies process daily tasks with zero to minimum use of printed forms. The paperless system is making its way to an important place in the business world.
The present digital technology makes documents accessible from any computing or communication device that has access to the internet. Even grocery stores can distribute digital coupons to customers, and patients can get access to their medical records from clinics or doctors’ offices all because of the digitization of data. Lots of businesses are already implementing it with the expert assistance of an experienced managed print services company.
Digital files and documents are cloud-compatible, portable, cost-effective, and shareable yet secure. But that’s not all. There are a lot of good reasons why there’s a need for businesses to go paperless, and the year 2020 could be a year to start. Here are the reasons:
A Paperless Process is Fast
Adopting a paperless process in your home or office can help you avoid the time-consuming processes of printing, sorting, distributing, and filing documents.
A paperless system allows you to save, distribute and store documents digitally. You can make all these happen at the tip of your fingertips with no legwork necessary.
Searching for digital files is also easier and faster than digging through stacks of printed documents.
There’s a plethora of files and documents that you can keep in digitized form in order to save time and space. They are easy to access and retrieve especially if you give them identifiable file names and store them in separate folders.
Medical records, personal documents, family photos, and proofs of payments are just a few of the types of personal or family documents you can store in digitized form. If you operate a business, you can produce, save and deliver digitized copies of your payroll, employee master list, periodic tax, social security, and company financial reports. This allows your company to save on printing cost which comprises up to 15% of your annual revenue.
Going paperless actually speeds up your business process. Make it possible in your company with professional help from a competent managed print services provider.
Going Paperless Saves You Money on Supplies, Storage Space, and Shredding Cost
If you add the printing expenses you incur each year, the overall amount could put you in shock. The cost of paper, printer consumables, printer maintenance, document storage, and professional shredding services can account for a big chunk of your operating budget. Knowing your yearly expenses on printing will allow you to determine how much you are going to save by simply embracing a paperless system. You can make it work for your business with the help of a reliable managed print services company.
Digital Systems Offer Greater Accuracy
Digital systems allow customers and registration applicants to fill in personal information into the system at their own time and convenience. If they fill out printed forms, there’s a chance that these will be misfiled or keyed in incorrectly into the system.
Going Paperless Increases Productivity
A few decades back, the day planner was the preferred tool of highly productive career persons. With the advent of advanced information technology and software, the day planner has become a thing of the past.
What used to take long hours to plan and organize activities with paper and pen would now take a few minutes with the help of information technology.
With the hours spent on planning eliminated, your staff can spend more time doing actual stuff. This makes them more productive and allows them to contribute more to the company in terms of output.
Going Paperless Makes Workers Capable of Working Remotely
If your office staff is tied to printed files and documents, they have to work only in the office. But if you’re able to free them from files and printed documents by way of a paperless system, you’ll certainly give them the ability to take their work wherever they go.
A paperless system allows you to do remote work with the same degree of efficiency but with improved productivity. It makes you capable of sharing and accessing documents online. It allows you to work with peers in real time even if they are based in a different location.
It Increases Security
According to Data Breach Today, 23% of breaches involving highly sensitive company data and 61% of breaches involving minor ones involve paper. It’s because printed documents can be misplaced, lost, stolen, mislabeled, thrown away, or sent to the wrong guy. These are security risks associated with keeping or maintaining printed documents – but they can be prevented by way of document digitization.
Security of data is an important aspect of every business operation. It is one of the advantages of going paperless. Electronic or digitized documents can be kept secure from unauthorized persons through encryption. You can also back them up and store them in a place that’s safe from natural disasters.
Less Paper Means Reduced Clutter
Paper is one of the major sources of unpleasant clutter, that’s a fact you can see with your own eyes.
Offices may look neat on the outside but they have cabinets that hide reports, lists, magazines, and sometimes old newspapers. Most of those papers were placed there for three possible causes:
- Someone printed them to comply an old company policy nobody dared to update even when those lists were no longer needed.
- Someone placed those files there to keep reports that had already been reviewed and discussed.
- Someone transferred those files to the cabinets to free their workplace from reports or lists they’re no longer interested in.
Some of the files stored in cabinets were never even read. They were actually part of the company’s decision to purchase file cabinets which are a useless investment. You can avoid spending unnecessarily on file cabinets by adopting the paperless system. Call a trustworthy managed print services provider to help you do it.
It Allows Collaboration and Easier Access to Information
Digital files and reports can be accessed by people who are authorized to view or update them anytime no matter where they may be. This makes way for easier collaboration between members of the same team and allows each of them to update the file quickly. This is not possible with printed files and documents.
It’s Friendly to the Environment
According to expert observation by The World Count, about 50% of waste from businesses consists of paper while offices in the United States consume 12.1 trillion sheets of paper per year.
Paper is made from trees. Man’s huge appetite for paper is the cause of 14% of the deforestation that happens in our planet today. We destroy approximately 4.1. million hectares of forest each year to satisfy our need for paper.
Using less paper means cutting down fewer trees. It also reduces our need for water and chemicals to manufacture paper. Using less water and paper-making chemicals reduces pollution and abuse of our freshwater resources.
By going paperless, your company can save lots of trees and contribute to the betterment of our planet. It’s a strategy that works not only to save you money and benefit the environment but as a selling point that can make you attractive to your customers.
A totally paperless life may be hard to realize, but a reduction in our printing processes can be a big step towards that goal. Going paperless can give this planet great hope to preserve its trees. We need them to keep the earth clean and green – and we need them more than we need paper for our survival.
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Strive to attain a paperless system in your business. It is a decision you make not just to minimize costs but to preserve the beauty and health of the planet we live on.
Let OneDoc help you achieve that goal. Call us toll-free at 1.844.633.3050.